Luminescence Dating of Monumental Stone Architecture at Chavín De Huántar,Perú

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is applied to quartz extracted from mud mortar collected from Chavín de Huántar, an early Andean monumental center. The samples appear to have been only partially exposed to sunlight during construction, so a minimum age model is applied to equivalent dose distributions. Complications, including complex radioactivity, low sensitivity of the quartz, and limited sample, prevent high precision, but the 14 dates obtained cluster around 1000 BC largely in agreement with radiocarbon assays on charcoal also collected from the mortar. Results suggest a relatively rapid construction for the monument. This work develops OSL as a method for directly dating architectural mortar.     

Isotopic evidence for the trade and production of exotic marine mammal bone artifacts at Chavín de Huántar,Peru

This study uses stable isotope analysis to identify the possible origin and taxon of unusually large worked bone artifacts recovered from the site of Chavín de Huántar in the central highland of Peru (3200–2200 BP). The site was traditionally considered to be an ideal trading point halfway between the Pacific coast and the Amazon jungle. The archaeological specimens were discovered in a workshop area located in the La Banda sector across from the main temple, and they were analyzed for the stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. Results indicate that the worked bone artifacts are marine in origin and are likely from a cetacean or large pinniped. Their exotic origin and elaborate work have implications about ancient production practices and exchange, and they provide benchmark data and a comparative approach for future analysis of exotic bone artifacts.     

Ancón and Garagay Ceramic Production at the Time of Chavı́n de Huántar

Ceramics from Ancón and Garagay, two early sites on the central coast of Peru, are analysed to verify the existence of ceramic exchange. The analysis technique are petrography, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX). The results are compared to a larger data bank including ceramics from the sites of Chavı́n de Huántar, Pallka, Huaricoto and smaller sites in the Nepeña valley. The analyses yield interesting information on ceramic production, which is mostly local, and unexpected results regarding the lack of compositional similarities between the ceramics analysed from Ancón and Garagay. The results suggest that, although the sites are close to each other, interactions and ceramic exchange should be sought for among communities within the same drainage.     

Conflicto político en el Poema de Fernán González

This article deals with the ways in which different political conflicts surrounding the emergence, independence, and consolidation of Castile as a political agent are managed and solved in the Poema de Fernán González. It shows how internal conflicts within the Castilian community are settled by favoring an authoritarian vision of leadership, discouraging consensus and shared decision making. Regarding conflicts with other political domains, the poem legitimizes Castilian independence by means of a narrative that makes natural Castilian claims on Visigothic heritage, while at the same time presenting Castile as following legal procedures and as a victim of external aggression.     

Traditional Burnt-Lime Production at Mayapán,Mexico

Abstract

Lime was widely utilized throughout ancient Mesoamerica. Drawing on the expertise of traditional Maya lime producers from a small local community, we address the energetics, material inputs, and archaeological signature of burnt-lime production in the Northern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. When compared with the estimated lime usage at the Maya site of Mayapan, the data collected from experimental lime burning suggest that traditional lime production was reasonably labor intensive and used large, albeit sustainable, quantities of raw materials, especially wood. Lime manufacture was an important component of ancient Mesoamerican economic life, especially in urban settings where it may have been a full time occupation for some, at least during certain parts of the year. This analysis allows us to predict what the remains of lime burning sites should look like and where they are most likely to be encountered archaeologically.     

Felipe Quinto,de austríaco a borbón,según sermones de la época (Nueva España, 1701–1747)

Este artículo se basa en dieciocho sermones predicados en Nueva España, cuyo tema central es la figura de Felipe de Anjou (Felipe V), primer representante de la dinastía borbónica en España. Desde que accedió; al trono por primera vez hasta su muerte, pasando por la Guerra de Sucesión, importantes eclesiásticos de las élites novohispanas pusieron la predicación al servicio de la propaganda borbónica, buscando propiciar adhesión en los fieles. Según conviniera acercar la figura del rey a la de monarcas anteriores o resaltar, en cambio, las características particulares de la nueva dinastía, los sermones que se conservan muestran cómo la retórica se ponía al servicio del poder imperante, modificando realidades e instalando visiones de mundo desde el púlpito.     

Cartografía emocional entre la China y la Gloria: Agustín de Foxá, Víctor Ruiz Iriarte y la Modernidad

Both Agustín de Foxá and Víctor Ruiz Iriarte premiered their first plays very near the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The two playwrights appear to belong to the same imaginative and poetical vein, but in fact Foxá yearns for an impossible return to an idealized past, in a pessimistic lamentation against Modernity—that is, precisely, his exotic drama Cui-Ping-Sing. The poetical theatre Ruiz Iriarte endorses in Un día en la Gloria, and thinks apt to Modern times, is based in a radical optimism—the idea that fantasy can always transform and improve a disappointing reality.     

The Títulos de Ebtún,Yucatan, Mexico: Mapping Maya Communal Identity in a Colonial Spanish Notarial Context

ABSTRACT

The main focus in this article is on four maps from colonial Yucatan, Mexico (c.1542?1821). The maps illustrate a two-volume set of Maya notarial documents called the Títulos de Ebtún and concern disputed communal rights to Tontzimin, one of the sparse water sources (cenotes) of this arid limestone region, and its surrounding arable land. Mention is also made of two maps of the province of Mani that were included in treaties agreed with the Spanish authorities as a final record of Maya claims to traditional agricultural rights. Although all these maps were produced by Spanish officials, they relate to broader colonial mapping traditions in Yucatan and embody a clear Maya influence. At the same time, they reveal the effect of Maya mapping practices on Spanish notarial and mapping traditions at the close of the colonial period.     

Native Californians at the Presidio of San Francisco: Analysis of Lithic Specimens from El Polín Spring

Relatively few archaeological studies have examined the experiences of native people at Spanish colonial military installations. A small flaked lithic assemblage at the Presidio of San Francisco provides insight into the lives and labor of Native Californians there. Technically proficient knappers, making do with poor-quality, locally available material, engaged in freehand core reduction and produced non-symmetrical, bifacially flaked tools through percussion production. These tools were most likely used for cutting during specific tasks. The analysis reveals how Native Californians in colonial institutions maintained flintknapping traditions in social spaces that were likely shared by native people and colonists.     

Estimating the Number of Combatants during the Mixtón War in the Peñol de Nochistlán

Abstract

The objective of this article is to determine the number of combatants in the Mixtón War (1541–42), one of the most important military confrontations of the early years of the vice-royalty in Western Mexico, by analysing the Peñol de Nochistlán. To this end, information provided by historians has been compared with the population estimates established from the density of settlements known from archaeological evidence in order to define the area occupied by the armies involved in the conflict. This exercise resulted in a shifting array of spaces that could have been used by the combatants during confrontations. However, it will enable more intense archaeological prospecting in the area around the site of El Tuiche — the place identified as the Peñol of Nochistlán — revealing new evidence of the events that occurred on this battlefield.     

Miskitu Labor and English Royalization at Augusta,Roatán Island,Honduras

In 1742, an outpost of English royalization was established on Roatán Island off the north coast of Honduras. The community, Augusta, housed a mix of English settlers and local indigenous Miskitu peoples. While the settlement was occupied for a brief span of only 7 years, the material record of the community provides insight into early English-Miskitu interactions during the process of English “royalization,” or the strategies deployed by monarchies to engender loyalty to a state. In this article, we discuss the concept of royalization from an agent-centered perspective and then describe the results of our four field seasons of archaeological investigations at Augusta, which have unearthed mixed deposits of English and Miskitu material culture. We argue that such deposits indicate that Miskitu labor and identity were entangled with English lifeways and lifestyles, and that these entanglements reveal some of the ways in which the process of royalization was adapted to the unique social and natural landscapes of the western Caribbean.     

Haciendas and economic change in Yucatán: Entrepreneurial strategies in the Parroquia de Yaxcabá, 1775–1850

Using archaeological and historical data from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century haciendas in theParroquia de Yaxcabá, Yucatán, this paper demonstrates how documentary records can be employed to create diachronic archaeological explanations. Both the organization of production on the hacienda and the entrepreneurial strategies pursued by the estate owners. contribute to the form of the hacienda. The following analysis suggests quantitative and qualitative explanations for variation in hacienda size and architectural elaboration. The archaeological interpretations offer a reconsideration of processes of economic change in central Yucatán prior to the Caste War of 1847.     

Variations in Human Adaptations During the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280) and the Ring Site,Southern Perú

Vertebrate remains from two stratified sites, the Quebrada Jaguay site (QJ-280) and the Ring Site, reveal details about economic strategies practiced between 13,145 and 7500 cal yr BP on the southern coast of Perú. The near absence of terrestrial resources, a broad continuity in economic activities focused on marine resources, and flexibility within the overall strategy, are among the most interesting aspects of these data. Although they reflect economic and social decisions driven, in part, by fluctuations in environmental conditions, they demonstrate that people were sophisticated strategists actively responding to dynamic environmental conditions.